Ratings & Tasting Notes:
96 points James Suckling
This review highlights the wine’s structural depth despite its youth, describing blackberry, dried blueberry, and cassis layers, noting fine-grained, “well integrated” tannins and a wine “drinkable now but best from 2029.”
95 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
This review notes black cherry and cassis aromatics leading into a rich, velvety palate, observing that it “shows great length and freshness on the lingering finish.”
I want to flag: I also found references to a 94-point Jeb Dunnuck score and a 92-point Vinous score for this vintage in retailer score summaries, but I couldn’t locate the actual review text for either, so I left them out rather than guess at what they say.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars stands among the most historically significant estates in California winemaking, founded in 1970 by Warren Winiarski with the purchase of a 40-acre property in what would become the Stags Leap District AVA. The S.L.V. vineyard — planted that same year — is the site that produced the legendary 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon that stunned the wine world by defeating France’s top Bordeaux estates at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, a moment widely credited with putting Napa Valley on the global map. In May 2023, the Marchesi Antinori family of Tuscany purchased the remaining stake in the winery to become its sole owner, with winemaker Marcus Notaro continuing to shape the estate’s celebrated “iron fist in a velvet glove” style. This bottling draws from several of S.L.V.’s original blocks, including Block 4 — the vineyard’s “grande dame,” planted in 1972.
Winemakers have described the 2022 growing season in Napa Valley as “a tale of two harvests.” A mild, easy spring and summer — following a wet winter that broke a three-year drought — gave way abruptly to a punishing five-to-six-day heat wave in early September, with temperatures soaring past 100°F just as much of the Cabernet Sauvignon crop was nearing ripeness. The heat spike was followed almost immediately by rain, which helped plump the remaining fruit and allowed growers to bring in clean, healthy grapes once conditions settled. The result is a vintage of real contrasts — concentrated, structured wines built on fruit that endured a genuine test in the vineyard, reflected in this bottling’s firm tannins and dark, layered fruit.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Outstanding condition.
Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.
